15g Rimless Reverie: The New J-Ranko Nano

[Clavius85]

Awesome tank!

[Coastie]

I have the radium in my odyssea fixture. It's fairly blue but I am also not sure that the ballast is powering it correctly.

[animalmaster6]

The tank is looking amazing. Future TOTM IMO.

Things are looking so great.

[J-Ranko]

Awesome tank!

 

Thanks!

 

The tank is looking amazing. Future TOTM IMO.

Things are looking so great.

 

Thanks, animalmaster! The tank's got a long way to go before TOTM, though. I imagine it'll be halfway there by the time your 125 has water!

 

I didn't envision going in this direction, but now I find myself wanting to tinker and tweak my water chemistry. So two weeks ago I started dosing vinegar and vodka (mixed at 80/20 ratio):

 

 

I've read about the pitfalls, so I'm going very slow, and so far no bacterial/cyano blooms of any kind has appeared, nor any bacterial slime on my glass, rocks, corals, etc. My pH drops only to 8.1 by morning (right before the lights come one).

 

I'm doing this mainly so that I can feed a lot without raising N and P. I noticed my corals grow best with frequent feeding, and maybe color up better. Hopefully my corals won't turn pale.

[J-Ranko]

Ive got the radium 20k but it's still in the burn in stage so it still burns pretty white..

 

Do you have the 150w DE Radium? I've read that those burn pretty white for a 20K, at least on most ballasts. I have a Lumatek ballast (with overdrive capability), which will probably run it more towards the white end.

 

I have the radium in my odyssea fixture. It's fairly blue but I am also not sure that the ballast is powering it correctly.

 

Yeah, it varies a lot depending on the ballast. Some get a bright white output, some get a very blue output. So I guess it'll be a gamble for me. I don't think I've seen a 150w Radium 20K in person before either.

[phattypeeps]

Awesome tank! I found with less rockwork in my tank, similar to yours, I had too much flow around my tank from a just a hang on the back filter. Because of this I am concerned about the right amount of flow.

 

I like the idea of less rock work and was wondering how your corals are reacting to the different flow settings of the MP10 in your tank now. Do you find the wave settings are helpful in promoting happy corals and growth in them?

[J-Ranko]

Awesome tank! I found with less rockwork in my tank, similar to yours, I had too much flow around my tank from a just a hang on the back filter. Because of this I am concerned about the right amount of flow.

 

I like the idea of less rock work and was wondering how your corals are reacting to the different flow settings of the MP10 in your tank now. Do you find the wave settings are helpful in promoting happy corals and growth in them?

 

Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy and lazy at the same for a while now and haven't bothered to update my thread.

 

My corals have responded well to the various wave settings and stronger flow. And none have certainly been hurt by it. My clam, on the other hand, has not been too happy with the stronger flow. It has moved around a bit and repositioned itself several times to avoid the strong flow. Just keep in mind that some corals prefer weaker water motion. Research each species you plan to keep and position in your scape accordingly.

 

I have my lps and ricordia positioned at the bottom of the tank, not only to keep them further from the light but also to keep them away from the direct blast of the mp10. They still received a very strong undertow, but it's a slower and gentler flow than what the sps corals received above them.

 

One thing to warn you about is direct laminar flow. Avoid blasting your corals with a narrow jet of water, like the kind produced by a Maxi-Jet or perhaps a very powerful hang-on-back filter. This can damage a coral's tissue. You want a wide and gentle but strong flow, ideally of shifting direction and variable speed.

[Maeda]

I love this tank. There are so few truely nice tanks. Keep up the good work.

[J-Ranko]

Finally, a new coral!

 

Today I bought a sun coral from my LFS. Here it is about 30 minutes after adding it into the tank (lights were off so this picture was taken with flash):

 

 

This is my very first non-photosynthetic coral. I hope it won't be too difficult to keep it alive. It's already opened up right away, so I'm glad I won't have to struggle just to get it to open up and not starve to death. I plan on feeding it some pellets, mysis and cyclop-eeze.

 

With some luck on this sun coral, maybe my next big project (long time away of course) will be a NPS-dedicated tank!

 

More updates about my tank tomorrow.

[J-Ranko]

I love this tank. There are so few truely nice tanks. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks, man!

[seabass]

Ooh...Ahh!

[J-Ranko]

Here's the sun coral today partially open with the lights on. I just finished feeding it a few pellets when I took these shots:

 

 

 

I accidentally broke off a little piece of my red monti cap feeding it since I have very little room to move my hand above it.

 

With a feeding dome made and some frozen foods ready I hope I can "train" it to open up fully in daylight.

[J-Ranko]

Ooh...Ahh!

 

[Rehype]

Nice looking coral J...I was never able to get mine to open up fully during the day. I had the most success in the evening just before dark.

[J-Ranko]

Nice looking coral J...I was never able to get mine to open up fully during the day. I had the most success in the evening just before dark.

 

Thanks. Mine has a similar cycle: it tends to open (partially) just an hour or two before the lights go out. It seems to do this on its own without sensing food. But I tried feeding it some mysis earlier today and I got it to open a little bit. I noticed that the polyps that are shaded or indirectly lit tend open more than the ones directly lit, so I might rework my scape to give it a little cave or overhang.

 

One of the few who seem to have their sun coral open fully in daytime is Uhuru (Mike) with the ADA 120p NPS tank. He does have continuous feeding, though, so that could be a major factor that I can't duplicate.

[J-Ranko]

[...]

I didn't envision going in this direction, but now I find myself wanting to tinker and tweak my water chemistry. So two weeks ago I started dosing vinegar and vodka (mixed at 80/20 ratio):

 

 

I've read about the pitfalls, so I'm going very slow, and so far no bacterial/cyano blooms of any kind has appeared, nor any bacterial slime on my glass, rocks, corals, etc. My pH drops only to 8.1 by morning (right before the lights come one).

 

I'm doing this mainly so that I can feed a lot without raising N and P. I noticed my corals grow best with frequent feeding, and maybe color up better. Hopefully my corals won't turn pale.

 

I've been dosing vodka for over a month now, and I've gotten mixed results. While my nutrients remained low and my skimmate volume increased, my corals--especially my acroporas--really got light and pale. It's my fault, of course, as I barely increased feeding despite the dosing. Just a week ago, I boosted my feeding considerably and my acros have recovered a bit. My Oregon blue tort and red planet have shown the most improvement lately, with the tort regaining its blue and the red planet getting back its red/pink hue. I might move it lower in the tank to get its green base back, too.

[J-Ranko]

This is how much I can get my sun coral to open during the day so far:

 

 

It doesn't seem to expand its polyps much more than this at night, though, so I'm not sure how much further it can open up with daytime feeding.

[Coastie]

My 150W DE Radium (probably ridiculously underdriven, I don't know) burns pretty blue. Again this isn't your top quality ballast so who knows. I am sloooowwwwllyyy growing on the color though.

[J-Ranko]

My 150W DE Radium (probably ridiculously underdriven, I don't know) burns pretty blue. Again this isn't your top quality ballast so who knows. I am sloooowwwwllyyy growing on the color though.

 

How long have you had it? Is it still burning-in?

[J-Ranko]

So I finally got it to open up fully in daylight---the trick is frozen cyclops-eeze!

 

[Rehype]

Awesome shot j.

[J-Ranko]

Awesome shot j.

 

Thanks, hype! Here's a full-size crop for a quasi-macro shot:

 

 

I swear this is the last pic I'll post of my sun coral for a while. I'm just really fascinated by it since it's my very first NPS coral.

[lilopop11]

Wooww...nice shot buddy..u have a great tank..

[timdanger]

Fwiw, my mp10 is every bit as quiet as a 6025.

 

this probably isn't a relevant issue anymore, but i 100% disagree with this statement. i have both an mp10 and a tunze 6025 (modded). both before and after the mod, the 6025 was very, very quiet, and i couldn't hear it across the room while i'm sleeping. meanwhile, i'm on my second mp10, and, even in night mode, the mp10 can be heard across the room. it is a SIGNIFICANT difference.

[timdanger]

also, re: radium -- i've been running a 150w DE radium for about 8 months, supplemented by 2x 24w T5HO ATI Blue Plus bulbs... when i just run the radium by itself, it looks very white, but it also still develops color better than other bulbs i've used. It doesn't look like other 20k bulbs i've seen.